pennyspoetryfandomcom-20200214-history
Thomas Hardy
| birthplace = Stinsford, Dorchester, Dorset, England | deathdate = (aged 87) | deathplace = Dorchester, Dorset, England | occupation = Novelist, Poet, and Short Story writer | movement = Naturalism | genre = | influences = Arthur Schopenhauer, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, John Milton, Charlotte Bronte, | influenced = Philip Larkin, D.H. Lawrence, Stephen King, John Fowles | spouse = Emma Lavinia Gifford (1874-1912) Florence Dugdale (1914-1928) | signature = Thomas Hardy signature.svg }} Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English poet and novelist. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. While Hardy regarded himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly for financial gain, during his lifetime he was much better known for his novels, such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, which earned him a reputation as a great novelist. The bulk of his fictional works, initially published as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional land of Wessex (based on the Dorchester region where he grew up) and explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his fifties, has come to be as well regarded as his novels and has had a significant influence over modern English poetry, especially after The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s cited Hardy as a major figure. Life Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England. His father Thomas (died 1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder. His mother Jemima (d.1904) was well-read. She educated Thomas until he went to his first school at Bockhampton at age eight. For several years he attended Mr. Last's Academy for Young Gentlemen in Dorchester. Here he learned Latin and demonstrated academic potential.Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy: the Time-torn Man(Penguin, 2007) pp.30,36. However, a family of Hardy's social position lacked the means for a university education, and his formal education ended at the age of sixteen when he became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect.Walsh, Lauren. Introduction. The Return of the Native. By Thomas Hardy. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005. Print. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862; there he enrolled as a student at King's College, London. He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association. Hardy never felt at home in London. He was acutely conscious of class divisions and his social inferiority. However, he was interested in social reform and was familiar with the works of John Stuart Mill. He was also introduced to the works of Charles Fourier and Auguste Comte during this period by his Dorset friend Horace Moule. Five years later, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset and decided to dedicate himself to writing. In 1870, while on an architectural mission to restore the parish church of St Juliot in Cornwall,Gibson, James (ed.) (1975) Chosen Poems of Thomas Hardy, London: Macmillan Education; p.9. Hardy met and fell in love with Emma Lavinia Gifford, whom he married in 1874.Hardy, Emma (1961) Some Recollections by Emma Hardy; with some relevant poems by Thomas Hardy; ed. by Evelyn Hardy & R. Gittings. London: Oxford University Press"Thomas Hardy - the Time-Torn Man" (a reading of Claire Tomalin's book of the same name), BBC Radio 4, 23 October 2006 Although he later became estranged from his wife, her death in 1912 had a traumatic effect on him. After her death, Hardy made a trip to Cornwall to revisit places linked with their courtship, and his Poems 1912-13 reflect upon her passing. In 1914, Hardy married his secretary Florence Emily Dugdale, who was 39 years his junior. However, he remained preoccupied with his first wife's death and tried to overcome his remorse by writing poetry."Thomas Hardy at Stourhead" BBC Online, 10 March 2004 (Retrieved: 7 September 2009) Hardy's work was admired by many writers of a younger generation including D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. In his autobiography Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves recalls meeting Hardy in Dorset in the early 1920s. Hardy received him and his new wife warmly, and was encouraging about his work. Religious beliefs Hardy's family was Anglican, but not especially devout. He was baptised at the age of five weeks and attended church, where his father and uncle contributed to music. However, he did not attend the local Church of England school, instead being sent to Mr Last's school, three miles away. As a young adult, he befriended Henry R. Bastow (a Plymouth Brethren man), who also worked as a pupil architect, and who was preparing for adult baptism in the Baptist Church. Hardy flirted with conversion, but decided against it.Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy, The Time Torn Man(Penguin, 2007), pp.46-47. Bastow went to Australia and maintained a long correspondence with Hardy, but eventually Hardy tired of these exchanges and the correspondence ceased. This concluded Hardy's links with the Baptists. Although Hardy's faith remained intact, the irony and struggles of life led him to question the traditional Christian view of God: Hardy's religious life seems to have mixed agnosticism, deism, and spiritism. Once, when asked in correspondence by a clergyman about the question of reconciling the horrors of pain with the goodness of a loving God, Hardy replied, Nevertheless, Hardy frequently conceived of and wrote about supernatural forces that control the universe, more through indifference or caprice than any firm will. Also, Hardy showed in his writing some degree of fascination with ghosts and spirits. Despite these sentiments, Hardy retained a strong emotional attachment to the Christian liturgy and church rituals, particularly as manifested in rural communities, that had been such a formative influence in his early years, and Biblical references can be found woven throughout many of Hardy's novels. Hardy's friends during his apprenticeship to John Hicks included Horace Moule (one of the eight sons of Henry Moule and the poet William Barnes, both ministers of religion. Moule remained a close friend of Hardy's for the rest of his life, and introduced him to new scientific findings that cast doubt on literal interpretations of the Bible,"Biography: Thomas Hardy" wps.Ablongman.com, (Retrieved: 7 September 2009) such as those of Gideon Mantell. Moule gave Hardy a copy of Mantell's book The Wonders of Geology (1848) in 1858, and Adelene Buckland has suggested that there are "compelling similarities" between the "cliffhanger" section from A Pair of Blue Eyes and Mantell's geological descriptions. It has also been suggested that the character of Henry Knight in A Pair of Blue Eyes was based on Horace Moule.[http://www.19.bbk.ac.uk/index.php/19/article/viewFile/469/329 Adelene Buckland: Thomas Hardy, Provincial Geology and the Material Imagination] Death Hardy became ill with pleurisy in December 1927 and died at Max Gate just after 9 p.m. on 11 January, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed; the cause of death was cited, on his death certificate, as "cardiac syncope", with "old age" given as a contributory factor. His funeral was on 16 January at Westminster Abbey, and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy and his family and friends had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. However, his executor, Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner. However, a story persists that, when the undertaker arrived at Max Gate to collect the heart, he found a cat eating it; whereupon he killed the cat and had it (together with the heart's remains) buried in Stinsford instead.Frank Smyth, "The Cat that Ate Thomas Hardy's Heart," Wessex Journal, 1996. WestDorsetConidential, October 16, 2012. WordPress, Web, July 11, 2016. Shortly after Hardy's death, the executors of his estate burnt his letters and notebooks. Twelve records survived, one of them containing notes and extracts of newspaper stories from the 1820s. Research into these provided insight into how Hardy kept track of them and how he used them in his later work."Homeground: Dead man talking" BBC Online, 20 August 2003 (Retrieved: 7 September 2009) In the year of his death Mrs Hardy published The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841-1891: compiled largely from contemporary notes, letters, diaries, and biographical memoranda, as well as from oral information in conversations extending over many years. parish church]] Writing Novels '' and Far from the Madding Crowd were written]] Hardy's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher and Hardy destroyed the manuscript so only parts of the novel remain. He was encouraged to try again by his mentor and friend, Victorian poet and novelist George Meredith. Desperate Remedies (1871) and Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) were published anonymously. In 1873 A Pair of Blue Eyes, a novel drawing on Hardy's courtship of his first wife, was published under his own name. The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialized version of this story (which was published in Tinsley's Magazine between September 1872 and July 1873) in which Henry Knight, one of the protagonists, is left literally hanging off a cliff. Hardy said that he first introduced Wessex in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), his next novel. It was successful enough for Hardy to give up architectural work and pursue a literary career. Over the next twenty-five years Hardy produced ten more novels. The Hardys moved from London to Yeovil and then to Sturminster Newton, where he wrote The Return of the Native (1878). In 1885, they moved for a last time, to Max Gate, a house outside Dorchester designed by Hardy and built by his brother. There he wrote The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), the last of which attracted criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of a "fallen woman" and was initially refused publication. Its subtitle, A Pure Woman: Faithfully Presented, was intended to raise the eyebrows of the Victorian middle-classes. Jude the Obscure, published in 1895, met with even stronger negative outcries from the Victorian public for its frank treatment of sex, and was often referred to as "Jude the Obscene". Heavily criticised for its apparent attack on the institution of marriage through the presentation of such concepts as erotolepsy, the book caused further strain on Hardy's already difficult marriage because Emma Hardy was concerned that Jude the Obscure would be read as autobiographical. Some booksellers sold the novel in brown paper bags, and the Bishop of Wakefield is reputed to have burnt his copy. In his postscript of 1912, Hardy humorously referred to this incident as part of the career of the book: "After these hostile verdicts from the press its next misfortune was to be burnt by a bishop - probably in his despair at not being able to burn me". , 1893]] Despite this criticism, Hardy had become a celebrity in English literature by the 1900s, with several highly successful novels behind him, yet he felt disgust at the public reception of two of his greatest works and gave up writing fiction altogether. Other novels written by Hardy include Two on a Tower, a romance story set in the world of Astronomy. Themes Hardy critiques certain social constraints that hindered the lives of those living in the 19th century. Considered a Victorian Realist writer, Hardy examines the social constraints that are part of the Victorian status quo, suggesting these rules hinder the lives of all involved and ultimately lead to unhappiness. In Two on a Tower, Hardy seeks to take a stand against these rules and sets up a story against the backdrop of social structure by creating a story of love that crosses the boundaries of class. The reader is forced to consider disposing of the conventions set up for love. Nineteenth-century society enforces these conventions, and societal pressure ensures conformity. Swithin St Cleeve's idealism pits him against contemporary social constraints. He is a self-willed individual set up against the coercive strictures of social rules and mores. Hardy's characters often encounter crossroads, which are symbolic of a point of opportunity and transition. But the hand of fate is an important part of many of Hardy's plots. Far From the Madding Crowd tells a tale of lives that are constructed by chance. "Had Bathsheba not sent the valentine, had Fanny not missed her wedding, for example, the story would have taken an entirely different path.""Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy - Introduction" (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 153. Gale Group, Inc., 2005. eNotes.com. 2006. 12 March 2008) eNotes.com (Retrieved: 7 September 2009) Hardy's main characters often seem to be in the overwhelming and overpowering grip of fate. Poetry , 1922]] In 1898 Hardy published his first volume of poetry, Wessex Poems, a collection of poems written over 30 years. Hardy claimed poetry as his first love, and after a great amount of negative criticism erupted after the publication of his novel Jude The Obscure, he decided to give up writing novels permanently and focus his efforts on writing poetry. Hardy continued to publish poetry collections until his death in 1928. Although he did publish one last novel in 1897, that novel, The Well-Beloved, had actually been written prior to Jude the Obscure. Although his poems were not initially as well received by his contemporaries as his novels were, Hardy is now recognized as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. His verse had a profound influence on later writers, notably Philip Larkin, who included many of Hardy's poems in the 1973 edition of the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse that he edited. In a recent biography on Hardy, Claire Tomalin argues that Hardy became a truly great English poet after the death of his first wife, Emma, beginning with the elegies he wrote in her memory, calling these poems, "one of the finest and strangest celebrations of the dead in English poetry."Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007. Most of his poems such as "Neutral Tones'" and "A Broken Appointment" deal with themes of disappointment in love and life (which were also prominent themes in his novels), and mankind's long struggle against indifference to human suffering. Using stylistic patterns similar to those that he used in his novels, Hardy sometimes wrote ironic poems, like "Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave," in which he employed twist endings in the last few lines or in the last stanza to convey that irony. Some, like "The Darkling Thrush" and "An August Midnight", appear as poems about writing poetry, because the nature mentioned in them gives Hardy the inspiration to write. His compositions range in style from the three-volume epic closet drama The Dynasts to shorter poems such as "A Broken Appointment." A particularly strong theme in the Wessex Poems is the long shadow that the Napoleonic Wars cast over the nineteenth century, for example, in "The Sergeant's Song" and "Leipzig". A few of Hardy's poems, such as "The Blinded Bird" (a melancholy polemic against the sport of ), display his love of the natural world and his firm stance against animal cruelty, exhibited in his antivivisectionist views and his membership in the RSPCA. (Google Books) A number of notable composers, including Gerald Finzi, Benjamin Britten, and Gustav Holst, have set poems by Hardy to music. Locations in novels Berkshire is North Wessex, Devon is Lower Wessex, Dorset is South Wessex, Somerset is Outer or Nether Wessex, Wiltshire is Mid-Wessex, Bere Regis is King's-Bere of Tess, {C Bincombe Down cross roads is the scene of the military execution in A Melancholy Hussar. It is a true story, the deserters from the German Legion were shot in 1801 and are recorded in the parish register. {C Bindon Abbey is where Clare carried her. {C Bournemouth is Sandbourne of Hand of Ethelberta and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, {C Bridport is Port Bredy, {C Charborough House and its folly tower is the model for Welland House in the novel Two on a Tower. {C Corfe Castle is the Corvsgate-Castle of Hand of Ethelberta. {C Cranborne Chase is The Chase scene of Tess's seduction. (Note - Bowerchalke on Cranborne Chase was the film location for the great fire in John Schlesinger's 1967 film Far from the Madding Crowd.) {C Milborne St Andrew is "Millpond St Judes" in Far From the Madding Crowd. Charborough Househttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charborough_House is located between Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis. {C Charborough House and its folly tower is the model for Welland House in the novel Two on a Tower by Thomas Hardy. Little England Cottage, Milborne St Andrew being the location of Swithin St Cleeves home and remains as described to this day. {C Dorchester, Dorset is Casterbridge, the scene of Mayor of Casterbridge. {C Dunster Castle in Somerset is Castle De Stancy of A Laodicean. {C Fordington moor is Durnover moor and fields. {C Greenhill Fair near Bere Regis is Woodbury Hill Fair, {C Lulworth Cove is Lulstead Cove, {C Marnhull is Marlott of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Melbury House near Evershot is Great Hintock Court in A Group of Noble Dames. Minterne is Little Hintock, Owermoigne is Nether Moynton in Wessex Tales. Piddlehinton and Piddle Trenthide are the Longpuddle of A Few Crusted Characters. Puddletown Heath, Moreton Heath, Tincleton Heath and Bere Heath are Egdon Heath. Poole is Havenpool in Life's Little Ironies. {C Portland is the scene of The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved. {C Puddletown is Weatherbury in Far from the Madding Crowd, {C River Frome valley is the scene of Talbothays dairy in Tess. {C Salisbury is Melchester in On the Western Circuit, Life's Little Ironies and Jude the Obscure etc. Shaftesbury is Shaston in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. {C Sherborne is Sherton-Abbas, {C Sherborne Castle is home of Lady Baxby in A Group of Noble Dames. {C Stonehenge is the scene of Tess's apprehension. Sutton Poyntz is Overcombe. Swanage is the Knollsea of Hand of Ethelberta. Taunton is known as Toneborough in both Hardy's novels and poems. {C Wantage is Alfredston, of Jude the Obscure. Fawley, Berkshire is Marygreen of Jude the Obscure. {C Weyhill is Weydon Priors, {C Weymouth is Budmouth Regis, the scene of Trumpet Major & portions of other novels; {C Winchester is Wintoncester where Tess was executed. Wimborne is Warborne of Two on a Tower. {C Wolfeton House, near Dorchester is the scene of The Lady Penelope in a Group of Noble Dames. {C Woolbridge old Manor House, close to Wool station, is the scene of Tess's confession and honeymoon. Recognition In 1910, Hardy was awarded the Order of Merit. On 16 Jamuary 1928, Hardy's ashes were buried in Poets' Corner, Poets' Corner (Westminster Abbey) (except for his heart, which was buried at Stinsford.)Thomas Hardy, People, History, Westminster Abbey. Web, July 11, 2016. Hardy's cottage at Bockhampton and Max Gate in Dorchester are owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. In popular culture Hardy provides the springboard for D.H. Lawrence's Study of Thomas Hardy (1936). Though this work became a platform for Lawrence's own developing philosophy rather than a more standard literary study, the influence of Hardy's treatment of character and Lawrence's own response to the central metaphysic behind many of Hardy's novels helped significantly in the development of The Rainbow (1915, suppressed) and Women in Love (1920, private publication). Hardy was clearly the starting point for the character of the novelist Edward Driffield in W Somerset Maugham's novel Cakes and Ale. Thomas Hardy's works feature prominently in the narrative in Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo, in which a graduate thesis analysing Tess of the d'Urbervilles is interspersed with analysis of Matt's family's neuroses. Publications Poetry *''Wessex Poems, and other verses'' (illustrated by the author). Harper & Brothers, 1898. *''Poems of the Past and the Present. Harper & Brothers, 1901. *Time’s Laughingstocks, and other verses. Macmillan, 1909. *Satires of Circumstance. Macmillan, 1914. *Selected Poems. Macmillan, 1916. *Moments of Vision, and miscellaneous verses. Macmillan, 1917. *Collected Poems. Macmillan, 1919 ** enlarged edition, 1930; Macmillan, 1931. *Late Lyrics and Earlier, with many other verses. Macmillan, 1922. *''Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs, and Trifles. Macmillan, 1925. *''Winter Words, in various moods and metres''. Macmillan, 1928. *''Chosen Poems''. Macmillan, 1929. *''The Complete Poems''. Macmillan, 1976; Macmillan, 1978. *''The Variorum Edition of the Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy''. Macmillan, 1979. *''The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy''. Oxford University Press, 1982-1985. *''Selected poetry''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. *''Selected Poems'' (edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Mezey). New York: Penguin Books, 1998. *''The Complete Poems'' (edited by James Gibson). New York: Palgrave, 2001. Plays *''The Mistress of the Farm'' (adapted from Far from the Madding Crowd; first produced as Far from the Madding Crowd in Liverpool at the Prince of Wales Theatre, February 27, 1882, produced in the West End at the Globe Theatre, April 29, 1882). privately printed, c. 1879. *''The Three Wayfarers'' (1 act; first produced in London at Terry’s Theatre, June 3, 1893). Harper & Brothers, 1893 ** revised edition, Fountain Press, 1930;Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1979. *''Tess of the d’Urbervilles'' (5 acts; adapted from the novel of the same name, first produced in New York at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, March 2, 1897). published in Tess in the Theatre (edited by Marguerite Roberts). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950. *''The Dynasts'' (19 acts; selected revised scenes first produced in London at Kingsway Theatre, November 25, 1914). Macmillan, Volume 1, 1904, Volume 2, 1905, Volume 3, 1908 ** (1-volume edition) Macmillan, 1910; 1978. *(Adapter) The Play of “Saint George”. privately printed, 1921. *''The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall'' (1 act; first produced in Dorchester, England, November, 1923). Macmillan, 1923 ** revised edition, Mamillan, 1924; Folcroft, 1980. Novels *''Desperate Remedies'' (anonymous). (3 volumes), Tinsley Brothers, 1871 ** revised edition. (1 volume), New York: Holt, 1874; New York: St. Martin’s, 1977. *''Under the Greenwood Tree: A rural painting of the Dutch School'' (anonymous). (2 volumes), Tinsley Brothers, 1872; (1 volume), Holt & Williams, 1873; Oxford University Press, 1986. *''A Pair of Blue Eyes'' (first published serially in Tinsley’s Magazine, September, 1872-July, 1873); (3 volumes). Tinsley Brothers, 1873; (1 volume), Holt & Williams, 1873 ** revised edition, Macmillan, 1919; Penguin Books, 1986. *''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (first published serially in Cornhill Magazine, January, 1874-December, 1874); (2 volumes). Smith, Elder, 1874; (1 volume) Holt, 1874 **revised edition. Smith, Elder,, 1875; New York: Norton, 1986. *''The Hand of Ethelberta'' (first published serially in Cornhill Magazine, July, 1875 - May, 1876); (2 volumes), Smith, Elder, 1876; (1 volume), Holt, 1876 **revised edition, Osgood, McIlvaine & Company, 1896; St. Martin’s, 1978. *''The Return of the Native'' (first published serially in Belgravia, January, 1878 - December, 1878); (3 volumes), Smith, Elder, 1878; (1 volume), Holt, 1878 ** revised edition, Osgood McIlvaine & Company, 1895; Garland Publishing, 1986. *''The Trumpet-Major: A tale'' (first published serially in Good Words, January, 1880 - December, 1880); (3 volumes) Smith, Elder, 1880; (1 volume), Holt, 1880; Penguin Books, 1985. *''A Laodicean'' (first published serially in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, December, 1880 - December, 1881). (1 volume), Harper & Brothers, 1881; recent edition, St. Martin’s, 1978. ** (3 volumes), London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1881 *''Two on a Tower: A romance'' (first published serially in Atlantic Monthly, May, 1882 - December, 1882); (3 volumes) Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1882; (1 volume), Holt, 1882 ** revised edition, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1883; Macmillan, 1976. *''The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid'' (first published serially in Graphic, summer, 1883). Harper & Brothers, 1883. *''The Mayor of Casterbridge'' (first published serially in Graphic, January 2, 1886 - May 15, 1886); (2 volumes), London: Smith, Elder, 1886 ** revised edition (1 volume), Holt, 1886; Chelsea House, 1987 **2nd edition, New York: Norton, 2001. *''The Woodlanders'' (first published serially in Macmillan’s Magazine, May, 1886-April, 1887), (3 volumes), Macmillan, 1887; (1 volume), Harper & Brothers, 1887, Oxford University Press, 1985. *''of the d’Urbervilles: A pure woman faithfully presented'' (first published serially in Graphic, July 4, 1891 - December 26, 1891); (3 volumes), Osgood, McIlvaine, 1891; (1 volume) Harper & Brothers, 1892 ** revised editions, Osgood, McIlvaine, 1892, 1895; Buccaneer Books, 1987. *''Jude the Obscure'' (first published serially in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, December 1894 - November 1895). Harper & Brothers, 1896 ** revised edition, Macmillan, 1902; Chelsea House, 1987; New York: Norton, 1999 ** revised edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. *''The Well-Beloved: A sketch of temperament'' (first published serially in Illustrated London News, October 1, 1892 - December 17, 1892). Harper & Brothers, 1897; St. Martin’s, 1978. *''An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress'' (first published in New Quarterly Magazine, July 1878). privately printed, 1934. * Also author of unpublished novel, The Poor Man and the Lady. Short fiction *''Wessex Tales'' (2 volumes), Macmillan, 1888; (1 volume) Harper & Brothers, 1888 ** (revised edition) Osgood, McIlvaine & Company, 1896 ** (2nd revised edition) Macmillan, 1912; Franklin Library, 1982. *''A Group of Noble Dames. Harper & Brothers, 1891; St. Martin’s, 1957. *Life’s Little Ironies. Harper & Brothers, 1894; Macmillan, 1912; Academy Chicago Publishers, 1985. *A Changed Man, The Waiting Supper, and other tales. Harper & Brothers, 1913; Academy Chicago Publishers, 1986. *''Old Mrs. Chundle, and other stories, with The tragedy of the famous Queen of Cornwall. St. Martin’s, 1977. *''An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress, and other stories''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. *''The Fiddler of the Reels, and other stories''. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1997. *''The Complete Stories'' (edited by N. Page). London: J.M. Dent, 1997. *''The Withered Arm, and other stories, 1874-1888'' (edited by Kristin Brady). New Yoek: Penguin Books, 1999. Non-fiction * Candour in English Fiction. 1890. *''The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840-1891'' (autobiography; with wife, Florence Emily Hardy). Macmillan, 1928. *''The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892-1928'' (autobiography; with wife, Florence Emily Hardy). Macmillan, 1930. *''Thomas Hardy’s Personal Writings: Prefaces, literary opinions, reminiscences''. University of Kansas, 1966. *''Thomas Hardy’s Christmas'' (compiled by John Chandler). A. Sutton, 1997. *''Thomas Hardy’s Public Voice: The essays, speeches, and miscellaneous prose'' (edited by Michael Millgate). New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. *Also author of non-fiction prose works such as Candour in English Fiction, 1890. Collected editions *''The Pocket Thomas Hardy: Being selections from the Wessex novels and poems of Thomas Hardy'' (selected by Alfred H. Hyatt). London: Chatto & Windus, 1906.The Pocket Thomas Hardy: Being selections from the Wessex novels and poems of Thomas Hardy (1906), Internet Archive. Web, Sep. 11, 2014. *''The Penguin Thomas Hardy''. Penguin Books, 1983. *''The Works of Thomas Hardy in Prose: With Prefaces and Notes'' (18 volumes). AMS Press, 1984. *''Works of Thomas Hardy''. Smith Publications, 1989. *''The Essential Hardy'' (edited by Joseph Brodsky). Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995. *''Thomas Hardy: Selected poetry and nonfictional prose''. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Letters and notebooks *''The Literary Notes of Thomas Hardy''. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1974. *''The Personal Notebooks of Thomas Hardy''. Macmillan, 1978; New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. *''The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy'' (edited by Richard L. Purdy & Michael Millgate), Oxford University Press, Volume I, 1978, Volume II, 1980, Volume III, 1982, Volume IV, 1984, Volume V, 1985, Volume VI, 1987, Volume VII, 1988. * Thomas Hardy’s ‘Facts’ Notebook (edited by William Greenslade). Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2003. (A previously unpublished notebook). Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.Thomas Hardy 1840-1928, Poetry Foundation, Web, Sep. 30, 2012. See also * List of British poets References * Armstrong, Tim. "Player Piano: Poetry and Sonic Modernity" in '' Modernism/Modernity'' 14.1 (January 2007), 1-19. * Blunden, Edmund. Thomas Hardy. New York: St. Martin's, 1942. * Brennecke, Jr., Ernest. The Life of Thomas Hardy. New York: Greenberg, 1925. * D'Agnillo, Renzo, "Music and Metaphor in Under the Greenwood Tree, in The Thomas Hardy Journal, 9, 2 (May 1993), pp.39-50. * D'Agnillo, Renzo, "Between Belief and Non-Belief: Thomas Hardy's 'The Shadow on the Stone'", in Thomas Hardy, Francesco Marroni and Norman Page (eds), Pescara, Edizioni Tracce, 1995, pp.197-222. * Deacon, Lois and Terry Coleman. Providence and Mr. Hardy. London: Hutchinson, 1966. * Draper, Jo. Thomas Hardy: A Life in Pictures. Wimborne, Dorset: The Dovecote Press. * Ellman, Richard & O'Clair, Robert (eds.) 1988. "Thomas Hardy" in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Norton, New York. * Gatrell, Simon. Hardy the Creator: A Textual Biography. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988. * Gibson, James. Thomas Hardy: A Literary Life. London: Macmillan, 1996. * Gittings, Robert. Thomas Hardy's Later Years. Boston : Little, Brown, 1978. * Gittings, Robert. Young Thomas Hardy. Boston : Little, Brown, 1975. * Gittings, Robert and Jo Manton. The Second Mrs Hardy. London: Heinemann, 1979. * Gossin, P. Thomas Hardy's Novel Universe: Astronomy, Cosmology, and Gender in the Post-Darwinian World. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007 (The Nineteenth Century Series). * Halliday, F. E. Thomas Hardy: His Life and Work. Bath: Adams & Dart, 1972. * Hands, Timothy. Thomas Hardy : Distracted Preacher? : Hardy's religious biography and its influence on his novels. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. * Hardy, Evelyn. Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography. London: Hogarth Press, 1954. * Hardy, Florence Emily. The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840-1891. London: Macmillan, 1928. * Hardy, Florence Emily. The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892-1928 London: Macmillan, 1930. * Harvey, Geoffrey. Thomas Hardy: The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy. New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), 2003. * Hedgcock, F. A., Thomas Hardy: penseur et artiste. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1911. * Holland, Clive. Thomas Hardy O.M.: The Man, His Works and the Land of Wessex. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1933. * Jedrzejewski, Jan. Thomas Hardy and the Church. London: Macmillan, 1996. * Johnson, Lionel Pigot. The art of Thomas Hardy (London: E. Mathews, 1894). * Kay-Robinson, Denys. The First Mrs Thomas Hardy. London: Macmillan, 1979. * Langbaum, Robert. "Thomas Hardy in Our Time." New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995, London: Macmillan, 1997. * Marroni, Francesco, "The Negation of Eros in 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' ", in "Thomas Hardy Journal", 10, 1 (February 1994) pp. 33-41 * Marroni, Francesco and Norman Page (eds.), Thomas Hardy. Pescara: Edizioni Tracce, 1995. * Marroni, Francesco, La poesia di Thomas Hardy. Bari: Adriatica Editrice, 1997. * Marroni, Francesco, "The Poetry of Ornithology in Keats, Leopardi, and Hardy: A Dialogic Analysis", in "Thomas Hardy Journal", 14, 2 (Mayy 1998) pp. 35-44 * Millgate, Michael (ed.). The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy. London: Macmillan, 1984. * Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1982. * Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. * Musselwhite, David. Social Transformations in Hardy's Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. * O'Sullivan, Timothy. Thomas Hardy: An Illustrated Biography. London: Macmillan, 1975. * Orel, Harold. The Final Years of Thomas Hardy, 1912-1928. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1976. * Orel, Harold. The Unknown Thomas Hardy. New York: St. Martin's, 1987. * Phelps, Kenneth. The Wormwood Cup: Thomas Hardy in Cornwall. Padstow: Lodenek Press, 1975. * Pinion, F. B. Thomas Hardy: His Life and Friends. London: Palgrave, 1992. * Pite, Ralph. Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life. London: Picador, 2006. * Saxelby, F. Outwin. A Thomas Hardy dictionary : the characters and scenes of the novels and poems alphabetically arranged and described (London: G. Routledge, 1911). * Seymour-Smith, Martin. Hardy. London: Bloomsbury, 1994. * Stevens-Cox, J. Thomas Hardy: Materials for a Study of his Life, Times, and Works. St. Peter Port, Guernsey: Toucan Press, 1968. * Stevens-Cox, J. Thomas Hardy: More Materials for a Study of his Life, Times, and Works. St. Peter Port, Guernsey: Toucan Press, 1971. * Stewart, J. I. M. Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1971. * Turner, Paul. The Life of Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. * Weber, Carl J. Hardy of Wessex, his Life and Literary Career. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. * Wilson, Keith. Thomas Hardy on Stage. London: Macmillan, 1995. * Wilson, Keith, ed. Thomas Hardy Reappraised: Essays in Honour of Michael Millgate. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. * Wotton, George. Thomas Hardy: Towards A Materialist Criticism. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield, 1985. * Letter from Hardy to Bertram Windle, transcribed by Birgit Plietzsch, from CL, vol 2, pp.131-133 The letter is contained in the maps section of the TTHA website. Notes External links ;Poems * Thomas Hardy in The New Poetry: An anthology: "She Hears the Storm", "The Voice", "In the Moonlight", "The Man He Killed" * 6 poems by Hardy: "Winter in Durnover Field," "A Christmas Ghost Story," "The Darkling Thrush," "The Oxen," "Snow in the Suburbs," "Last Week in October" * Selected Poetry of Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) (17 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. *Thomas Hardy profile and 19 poems at the Academy of American Poets. * "The Dead Man Walking" (1909) and other Hardy poems at poetry-archive.com * Thomas Hardy 1840-1928 at the Poetry Foundation * Thomas Hardy at PoemHunter (328 poems). ;Books * *Works by Thomas Hardy at Internet Archive * Works by Thomas Hardy in e-book version * ;Audio * Works by Thomas Hardy in audio format from LibriVox ;About * Thomas Hardy in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Thomas Hardy at NNDB *Thomas Hardy at Spartacus Educational. * [http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/11january.htm The Life and Death of Thomas Hardy @ Ward's Book of Days] * Thomas Hardy at Find a Grave. *Thomas Hardy's poetry - study guide at UniversalTeacher.org *''Thomas Hardy: A critical study'' by Lascelles Abercrombie *''The Technique of Thomas Hardy'' by Joseph Warren Beach * Thomas Hardy's Wessex Research site, including maps, by Dr Birgit Plietzsch ;Etc. * The Thomas Hardy Society * The Thomas Hardy Association (TTHA) Category:Thomas Hardy Category:19th-century English people Category:Pantheists Category:English poets Category:English novelists Category:English short story writers Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:People from Dorchester, Dorset Category:1840 births Category:1928 deaths Category:Victorian poets Category:Victorian novelists Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:20th-century poets Category:Formalist poets